The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-04-20
IRISH RIGHTS.

Uut uudlly MOui dS II ucsCcuuo AOh OAcCU-
ing sire to son." because repetition has
worn the sentiment out of it; but if ever a
poetical inspiration was a prophetic in
spiration, too, it is the giaour's utter
anoe for Greece applied to Ireland. For
200 years, since the revolution of 1858, the
condition of Ireland has been partly the
suffering of helpless victim and partly
the protest of a struggling victim of En-
glish domination, in which but a single
CLEAN of Light appeared 100 years ago-and
proved, as Moore says of the day at the
pole:
"A light amid darkness too brilliant to stay"
when Grattan saw his opportunity and
1sed 1t to accomplish for Ireland the
good that the villainy of Castlereagh lost
| her. There has been an incessant change
| from one form of abuse to another, as pop
ular force has driven oppressive prejudice
from one resort to another, and the ten
dency has been necessarily toward an en-
| largement of Irish nationality. But all
that has been accomplished has done no
more than provide chance of help and q
hope of strength in contest for an abso-
lutte and immoysble position of self-gov-
eminent. That has been done, and the
National vote in Parliament is conspic-
uous proof, but Il is all in process-nothing
in fnality. With all that Ireland has
gained in Catholic emancipation, in Par
liamentary reform, in the disestablish-
ment of the Irish church, IN the extern
sion OF suffrage, in the amelioration of the
land laws, there is so big an arrear of unsat-
isfied national feeling for legislation still
to conciliate that one can't say of the bat
tie that, though it has been often baffled,
it is won even now.
We speak of the situation as it was be-
fore the introduction of the Balfour bill.
At that time the National movement
had gained more promise than fact for
Irish home rule, but the chance of inn
provement was good, and the better for its
Identification with the move ment against
the Tory and factious Liberal combination.
Now, it is none the worse, probably, but its
strength is close upon crucial test that
it might have escaped if Its antag ,nists
had been less successful in finding ground
for common standing room. But Hart
ington and Chamberlain and Bright and
Balfour and Churchill and Smith and
Salisbury can all fall into line on q meas
ure of coercion, and present to the Irish
and their friends one more hostile
array IN the long list of conflicts be-
queathed from the sires of the day of
Sarsfeld to the sons of the day OF Parnell.
Except that the Irish are stronger both in
general sympathy and self assertion,
there is little difference between the
contest now and those before il back to the
first attempt at domestic self-goverDment.
There is the same earnestness of patriotism
on one side, and the same obstinacy OF
prejudice on the other, that have marked
every Irish contest for 200 years. All the
changes of sentiment worked by the devel-
opment of civilization in that period have
been unable to efface a single trace of the
enmity that has mastered English legisla-
ton for Ireland whenever the national
feeling of one has been found provoca-
ton by the other. The conflict to-day on
the Balfour bill is not changed in any es-
sential quality from that of O'Connelrs
day or that of Grattans. The English SEN
timent trusts nothing to Irish honor or
manliness, and insists on iron-bound laws
/ to protect the interests it champions; and
| Irish sentiment as inevitably comedies to
| England no more sense of justice than
/ would suffice to turn every Irish tenant
/ into the highway, and ship every needy
family of to some foreign land beyond all
chance of return. This state of mutual
distrust and irritation is English work
mainly, for the initiative of Cancellation
has been with England always, and has al
ways been neglected or abused.
II viii be not altogether without interest,
now that the Irish contest grows so close
and warm, to note the points of concession
demanded in the first measure OF Irish
home rule ever adopted, that of 1882. Mr..
Grattan, in his speech on the 10th Of April,
says: Connected by freedom as well as
I by allegiance, the two nations, Great
Britain and Ireland, form a constitutional
confederacy as well as empire. The
crown is one link, the constitution another
and in my mind the most powerful. You
can get king anywhere, but England is
the only country with which you can get
and participate free constitution. This
makes England Jour natural connection,
and her king your natural as well
as your legal sovereign. This is connec'
ton, not as Lord Coke has idly said, not
as Judge Blackstone has foolishly said, not
as other Judges have ignorantly said, by
conquest, but as Molyneux has said, and as
now say, by compact-that compact is g
free constitution. Suffer me to now state
some of the things essential to that free
constitution. They are as follows: The
independency OF the Irish Parliament-the
exclusion of the British Parliamen from
any authority in this realm-the restora-
ton of the Irish judicature and the ex.
clusion of that of Great Britain" We
fancy that Mr.. Parnell or Mr. Davitt would
not make up longer or stronger List o.
concessions OF Irish right than was mads
by Grattan 100 years ago. In the conclusion
of his speech he restates his terms of Irisi
cooperation in this compact unde
free constitution: '(I) The repea
of the perpetual mutiny bill